April Things and Thoughts

Crochet Projects

Blanket for Sister-in-law

Aris Blanket – completing this blanket was one of my April goals – yaaaay me I did it! And it was also my most viewed post for the month!

Hairpin Lace Crochet Technique – a post about some of the many strips and motifs you can make using hairpin lace, plus a little story/reminder about the importance of thinking ergonomically while crafting. This was also an April goal. That’s another gold star for me! I’m also going to actively look for hairpin lace crochet projects to share so that if anyone decides to give the ‘loom a spin’ they can see what the strips can become. I was able to incorporate the round motif into Aimee’s Birthday Pillow. The light brown colored strip is actually part of a cardigan wip that I have no idea why I haven’t written about at all.

Crochet Potholders – there was a lot of baking in April which made me admit that my old potholders should be retired. I used the woven tartan technique in one potholder and 2 yarn strands together using HDC for the other. There were concerns about using acrylic yarn for these – some people had experiences with the yarn melting when exposed to high heat. To be honest – the plaid potholder will never touch a pan, I love the way it came out so it is more of a decorative item. The HDC I have used under casseroles and cookie sheets on the table and it’s fine, no sign of melting at all. I will not be testing this for my cast iron cookware though.

Mindful Mandala – my mandala grew a little more in April. My counts were good and the colors were pleasing. It was a good crochet therapy session. I have already picked the Osho Zen tarot card for the next few rounds and I’m pretty excited to spend some time with my mandala this week!

Aimee’s Birthday Pillows – this one went right down to the wire! I was attaching the doily style top to the crocheted round pillow about an hour before she stopped by. She loved them and sent me these pictures of them on her couch. The curtains in the background were the inspiration pattern I was working with. The adorable little doggie is my grandpuppie Lucy!

April Baking!

Kentucky Derby/Tollhouse Pie

I joined in with the first ever fantastic Bake-a-long that T-Sweets Tracy began after she and I made the same dessert one day – completely coincidentally! I used an easy no rolling pin required crust for my Tollhouse Pie .

Easy Chocolate Eclairs – don’t be afraid to whip up a pate a choux dough with this easy and impressive recipe. This is one of my favorite baking recipes and it’s great for just a Wednesday treat or a special occasion!

Those were all of my April Things.

Here are a few April Thoughts – Regarding Goals and Not Meeting Them

I only achieved about half of my April Goals. I like to think of myself as a ‘Glass Half Full’ type of person. But a ‘Glass Half Empty’ isn’t really a bad thing when you think about it. The best wines, bourbons, whiskeys, and brandies are never served as a full glass. So the lesson I’ve learned is that I should drink more to feel better about my failures!

Just kidding (a little)!

The lesson I learned is that I am the one that created these goals so I am the only one that is accountable for how I react to any that aren’t reached. It is me alone that chooses how I feel about it and what I do about it. The easiest answer is obviously stop broadcasting goals so that there is no risk. The better answer is to not take it so seriously – every goal reached is a victory. Every goal not reached is an opportunity to evaluate, adjust, and reconcile the difference between what I want to do and what I realistically can do.

Things I Would Like to do in May but am not Necessarily Committing Myself to Doing Them

😀

Find and follow 5 new interesting blogs per week. This is down from the 10 per week that I hoped to do in April. I followed 20 new blogs last month. It was easy to find them but what I didn’t account for is that now I have 20 more blogs to read every day. I am currently following 306 blogs – reading every post has become quite time consuming.

Crochet some cute summer tops for my patiently waiting aspiring crochet apparel model Danielle to show off. I was able to make half a cropped halter top in April. I would like to make at least 2 more to send her this month for a total of 3 tops!

I have a design swimming around in my head for a crocheted Picnic Basket and Picnic Blanket – hubby and I love going on little picnics in the summer. We have 2 spots on the shore of a pond that we live near that are tucked away off of little paths through the woods.

I started work on a maxi skirt for myself – I want to finish this and maybe make another one. I live in maxi skirts all summer and coming up with a crochet design seems like a perfectly natural thing to do because I love wearing them!

I also want to finish the duster style cardigan I’m making for Aimee – this has become less of a priority because it will be too warm for her to wear it by the time I get it finished and shipped out to her. So I will work on this here and there – I’m at a place in the pattern where there isn’t any counting to do, it’s just building the length so this will be my TV watching project.

THE PILLOW YES YES YES IT LOOKS SO DAMN GOOD 😀 😀 😀 as for not completing your goals, don’t worry. I don’t either and I don’t care that i fail because life is a goal in itself. I think just being able to do these things and have your blog that you write is some kind of goal in it’s own way. So treat it more of a to do list with no expiry date. You did a lot of baking as well like wow!!

I was really pleased with how the round pillow came out – mostly because I was totally making up the design as I went along. It was just luck that my stitch counts were good for what I wanted to do. I kept thinking – hmm I should write this pattern down, but I didn’t. Oh I am certainly not very hard on myself for stuff like this. The only time I really get down on myself is when I do something stupid, which I haven’t in a while – so I’m probably past due! 😀 I’m going to be making a Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake this week! If I remember to take pictures I’ll do a post about it. 😀

Thanks!! I’m just glad I did something, it felt like the month went by so fast! It really is time consuming keeping up with all of the posts. I love reading them and next thing I know an hour is gone! I feel bad, but at some point I might stop reading the ones that don’t follow me or read my posts. I think that if I have to make a cut then the non-reciprocal bloggers will be first. 😦

This whole year has zoomed by me! Maybe it’s because I work with kids. I start the school year with it looming ahead of me, but I blink and it’s all behind me! And here we are in may and only four more weeks of the school year left. Where did the time go? Thanks for sharing all those yummy recipes and pictures. It gives me hope that I can actually make them. That’s my goal. 🙂

It’s funny, I’ve gotten so used to tracking time by the school year and it just occurred to me that with my youngest graduating high school this year I’m going to have trouble knowing what day of the week it is!! I’ll make sure to post a few recipes every month so you can try them out! 😀

I can keep up with the ones that I get email notifications for, but the ones that I have to go to WP Reader to find get away from me for a few days – then it’s an hour or two in catching up. I’m excited about the skirt. I worked on it a little bit today – I crocheted so much last week I needed a tiny break. 😀

April definitely has flown and I can’t believe we are almost halfway through the year! Love your mandala and the hairpin lace crochet technique looks so attractive. I think learning to crochet will have to be my Winter goal! You have inspired me!!!

Thank you so much!! I know I’m definitely going to be planting some rose bushes from reading your blog! How lovely and amazing it would be to sit in one of your gardens with a basket full of rose colored yarns and crochet all day!! That would be my “If I won the lottery” dream! Well I wouldn’t go set up camp in your back yard but I would definitely try to copy it!! Or maybe I would make you an offer to rent out a little spot in the corner of your garden! 😀

Thanks!! 😀 I like to write the goals down to try to stay focused – well I’ve already started 2 new things since Monday that are not one of my May goals – guess I need to find another way to stay focused!! LOL 😀

Tami, I always look forward to your monthly updates. It makes me feel inspired to see you log the progress you’ve made during the month. It also reminds me of your fun posts when I can see them encapsulated in your update. And, one note about the “blog-finding” goal – I’ve been doing something similar in the past few months, and I do find it really increases the commitment of time as you keep adding more blogs. I ended up evolving a two-step “new blog follow” effort – I add blogs to follow that look intriguing, and then about a month or so later I go back and try to identify the ones that I really look forward to reading, and then move the others to a digest email option.

What I like the most is being able to feel I’m part of a kind and supporting community of writers. It’s been very rewarding!

Hi Theresa! I look forward to your posts just as much! Isn’t the blog community just amazing! That was something that I didn’t expect when I started my blog. It was such a wonderful surprise. I may need to find a new blog follow/read strategy soon – it’s just so hard because I definitely want to support everyone that takes the time to read my blog and I also would find it difficult to shelve any because I haven’t found any yet that didn’t intrigue me! I’m sure like everything else I’ll get to a breaking point and find a balance. 🙂 Thank you for considering my blog one that you like to come back to!! 😀

Oh, yes, Tami, your blog is tops on my life. Isn’t it funny how we are drawn to certain blogs, and it’s so wonderful that there are so many to choose from. I really appreciate your support in reading and responding to my posts, and am happy to do the same for you and for others!

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